New Year Prayer for Ourselves

Today I want to give you a simple, short prayer that I learned from that fabulous Bible teacher and communicator, Pastor David Jeremiah. I always get it out as the old year winds down, and a new year is about to start. I totally forgot to pray it (& mean it) this year, but thought of you which helped me to remember to pray it too;-)

It’s amazing when you think about an upcoming year. We have twelve months ahead of us. We have no idea what those twelve months hold. Some things in our lives may happen that we would call fabulous—like getting that job we’ve always wanted, the birth of a child, or our child getting in to that first choice school. 

There may be some difficulty days ahead that we could never have predicted—an unwanted divorce, or a sudden illness. What we do know is this: God promises to be there with us. He says He will never leave us. Scripture says He, “goes before" us, the verse that stayed on my mind as the year was about to turn over and that I tweeted on New Year’s Eve (Deut. 31:8). ☺

"The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Let’s get alone with God and our Bibles, and let's pray and mean it (I like to get on my knees as well):

“Lord, Thank you for all you’ve done for me in this past year, but Lord I have not been all I could be.  There are areas of my life that are not yielded to Thee.  Things that I am hanging onto for myself—so cleanse my life.  Help me to see areas of blindness to sin and Lord just make me the kind of vessel you can use in the new year.”

We need to take time each day as we spend time alone with God to make sure things are right between God and us.  It is in those quiet morning times that God nudges me where I have sinned against others, usually my family since I spend the most time with them. (For some, night may be better, whichever time you can be alert and not likely to be interrupted.) Then I need to go back to that person and confess it to them, and ask for forgiveness.  Often what I said was not wrong, but the way I said it was wrong.  But I have blind areas that I need God to show me.  Things we don’t do that we should do, and things we do that we shouldn’t do.

Aren’t we glad we have a heavenly Father that loves us, desires to spend time with us, and promises to walk with us through each moment of 2013 that He gives us breath?

Tomorrow, one of my all-time favorite prayers you can pray daily to keep your heart centered in His will for your life.

Walk by Faith,